The Keiskamma Health Programme works in the Peddie district of the Eastern Cape to provide comprehensive and compassionate care for people affected by HIV/AIDS.

We do this in several ways:

through a network of dedicated village health workers,
at the Umtha Welanga Treatment centre,
through prevention and education programmes
and in conjunction with the work of Dr. Carol Baker, the only primary health care doctor for 10 villages in our area.

There are currently 5. 7 million South Africans infected with HIV.
280 000 of them are children.
Over 1.4 million children have been orphaned by AIDS.
1000 South Africans die every single day because of AIDS related illnesses.
In our district of Peddie 35% of pregnant women are HIV positive.

The Keiskamma Health Programme Overview

The Peddie district of Eastern Cape has approximately 200,000 people living mostly in rural villages in an area of approximately 3600 square miles. The unemployment in this area is as high as 90% and the majority of people live off government grants or old age pensions of grandparents. Access to medical treatment is severely restricted by poverty and inability to travel to sites offering care.

The Keiskamma Health Programme began in 2005 when AIDS counsellor Eunice Mangwane and Dr. Carol Baker began to provide ARVs (Anti-retroviral) and palliative care to AIDS patients in their own homes and with their own funds, with help from a handful of supporters. It soon grew to become the Umtha Welanga Treatment Centre which has to this date initiated over 700 patients and boasts an adherence success rate of over 90%. The programme also employs 43 village health workers who have home-based care training, and are often ex-patients themselves, with first hand and expert knowledge of HIV/AIDS.

Building capacity in local structures is one of our major priorities. We are already integrated to a high degree with the local primary care clinics, and have built a solid relationship with our local hospital. We are proud of the fact that our involvement is one of the factors that has led to the hospital receiving accreditation as an ARV rollout site.

Future Health Focus

At the beginning of 2010 we hope to be launching, in partnership with the Department of Health and Nompumelelo Hospital in Peddie, a brand-new step-down unit. Our staff will play a major role in the establishment of the unit as they have considerable experience and expertise in this area of auxiliary care.

Once we have facilitated the establishment of this new service we plan to focus our work at the Treatment centre in Hamburg on Paediatric and Maternal HIV/AIDS care. In the Eastern Cape Province, only 7% of children who are in need of ARVs are receiving them. We want to focus our efforts back onto education and prevention and holistic care of children, especially following each HIV positive child under the age of 1 year old, who should be started immediately onto treatment, according to new WHO standards.

Keiskamma Health Programme History

In 2005 there were no ARVs available in the district at all until Keiskamma Trust approached a PEPFAR program and persuaded them to work in the area and in partnership with Keiskamma AIDS treatment program. We initiated 195 patients on ARVS.

We realized due to ill health and distance the patients in this area needed somewhere to stay while being prepared for ARVS so we opened our residential centre. This was immediately successful as patients felt loved, valued and accepted and formed good relationships with other HIV positive people and our staff.

In 2006 the secondary hospital in our district became accredited to provide ARVS so our function changed to preparing patients for ARVS and then sending them to Nompumelelo hospital for their treatment. Central to our program is the health centre that we have established in Hamburg. In our rural area, transportation is difficult and expensive, and many of our clients live in distant villages. There is little access to hospitals, and we needed a place where we could provide full time monitoring and care to very ill patients, especially in the early stages of treatment when complications are likely.

In our health centre we provide 24-hour nursing care, and employ a full-time professional nurse. We are able to provide our patients with regular balanced meals, which is essential to effective treatment. It is a place where people can learn to follow the complicated drug regimens in a supportive and nurturing environment.

Our health centre is run on a principle of community involvement, and we make our relationships with community structures, church groups and local political entities a high priority. Community members, many of whom are struggling to support their own families, have donated their time and energy to making the project a success.

One of the main barriers to the successful provision of HIV care in South Africa is the lack of suitably trained care workers. We provide continued training to our own staff as well as to provincial health care workers. We have organised training workshop with specialists for care providers in our area.

We have been instrumental introducing testing of 6 week old exposed infants in all but 2 of 20 government clinics where we work. We have an aggressive PMTCT (Preventing Mother-To-Child-Transmission) program and encourage the government clinics to offer HIV testing to all pregnant mothers.

Health Education and Training

One of the main barriers to the successful provision of HIV care in South Africa is the lack of suitably trained care workers. We provide continued training to our own staff as well as to provincial health care workers. We have organized training workshop with specialists for care providers in our area.

Our training involves understanding of HAART initiation and monitoring, diagnosis and treatment of opportunistic infections and counseling a social support. We have been instrumental introducing PCR testing of 6 week old exposed infants in all but 2 of 20 government clinics where we work. We have an aggressive PMTCT (Preventing Mother-To-Child-Transmission) program and encourage the government clinics to offer HIV testing to all pregnant mothers.

Thanks

Thanks to supporters from around the world, especially to John Brown and friends based in London, Bjorn Rønneberg and friends in Norway and 25:40, based in Washington USA, PWRDF in Canada, The Keiskamma Canada Foundation, Keiskamma Friends UK, Ikhala Trust, HIVOS, HPCA, PATA, Kidzpositive and EU.

We are also particularly grateful to smaller organizations such as local churches and visiting individuals who give time and gifts. We believe that involvement of our donors in our work builds understanding and friendships between people from different backgrounds and cultures and helps bridge the divide of privilege and poverty